By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Today is the 57th day of the regular legislative session. Last Friday was another important deadline. It was the last day to consider bills from the opposite house, except initiatives and alternatives to initiatives, budgets and matters necessary to implement budgets. With only four days left of the regular session, the primary focus of the ... Read More »
By Xianming Chen USDA ARS Plant Pathologist Severe stripe rust forecasted for the eastern Pacific Northwest Based on our forecast models using the weather conditions from November 2015 to February 2016, stripe rust will potentially cause yield loss of 53 percent on highly susceptible varieties, indicating an epidemic in the severe (40-60 percent yield loss on susceptible varieties) range. This ... Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Last Friday was the deadline for bills to pass out of their policy committees from the opposite chamber. Monday was the deadline for bills to pass out of fiscal committees unless they are bills needed to pass the budget. This Friday, March 4, at 5 p.m. is the last day to pass opposite house bills, except ... Read More »
The Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) joined with other stakeholder groups, including the Washington Grain Commission, to fund a study on the economic impacts of the last year’s West Coast ports slowdown on Washington State businesses. According to the study, which was released in late February, between October 2014 and March 2015, slowdowns at West Coast ports cost Washington ... Read More »
Just a few weeks after the Washington Association of Wheat Growers’ (WAWG) trip to Olympia, leadership and staff headed east to take their advocacy and outreach to the federal level in Washington, D.C. The early-February trip was made to coincide with the annual winter meeting of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG). “Working with our national organization (NAWG) allows ... Read More »
Brian Cochrane, a dryland wheat farmer from Franklin County, has been appointed by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to take part in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Air Quality Task Force. “I feel honored and humbled to be selected for the Agricultural Air Quality Task Force,” Cochrane said. “I have been looking for a way to impact the ... Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist The list of active bills has been further narrowed after the deadline for bills to pass their house of origin was reached last Wednesday. Policy committees have resumed public hearings on legislation from the opposite house. The next deadlines are Friday, Feb. 26, when bills must get out of their policy committee and Monday, Feb. 29, ... Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Today is the 36th day of the 60 day session. The focus in the Legislature this week will be on passing bills out of the house of origin. The deadline to pass bills out of the house of origin is Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 5 p.m. The Legislature did not work over the weekend which ... Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist On Friday, we reached the first deadline of the legislative session. Any policy bills that did not move out of their original committee by Friday at 5 p.m. are dead for this session (unless otherwise revived). This drastically reduces the list of bills that are likely to move this session. The only legislation not covered ... Read More »
The Department of Ecology today released a new draft clean water rule (also known as the fish consumption rule) that contains a more protective cancer risk rate, in keeping with the governor’s directive from October 2015. The Environmental Protection Agency also is preparing a rule for Washington in case the state’s rule is not finalized. EPA released its draft rule ... Read More »
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